Technical Difficulties
by Haunting Your Kids
Summary: A voice in Valerie's head tells her to focus more on ghost hunting over her relationship with Danny. How will both cope? Lacking summery. DxV!
1. Past Curfew

Well, it pains me to say it, but I'm canceling my Danny Phantom/Soul Calibur fic. I could not get it to come out right mostly because I kept running into these "Well, they could've done this and it'd all be over" moments. It's sad really. It'd have been a very dark trilogy after that. However, a great non-crossover idea came to me, one that I originally pitched to writer's block stricken Obi-Quiet. I decided to write it instead of allow her to. She'd have wanted it that way, I'm sure.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

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Technical Difficulties

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Chapter 1: Past Curfew

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It was a cold night in Amity Park. Many of its resident were getting ready for bed. However, in a lonely warehouse by the pier, a ruckus was going on.

"BEWARE!" the out-of-shape Box Ghost shouted (again). "I, the Box Ghost, will destroy you with my cardboard cubes of chaos!"

The Box Ghost summoned the empty boxes forth and forced them at his intended target, Danny Phantom.

Danny Phantom was a young ghost who many didn't know whether to call a hero or a hoodlum. While he fought off ghosts, many believe he's the cause of them coming to Amity Park. As long as he was keeping the town safe, Danny didn't care about what the public said about him.

Onto the fight, Danny simply went intangible. The boxes flew right through him. "Come on, Box Ghost," Danny said, unamused, "we do this everytime, and the results come out the same. When will you give up?"

"NEVER!" the Box Ghost exclaimed. "For I am the Box GHOOOOOO-" The Box Ghost was unaware that he was being sucked into Danny's special ghost trapping thermos. He managed to get out one last, "BEWARE!" before the lid was shut on him.

"Finally," Danny said, checking his watch, "and not a moment too-" Danny was cut short when a bright purple beam barely singed his white hair. He turned around and gasped, "soon!"

He saw a girl about his age in black and red battle suit on a matching hoverboard with three shining cubes floating over her head. Her face, which could be seen through a red visor, showed much displeasement over her missed target.

"This next shot won't miss, punk!" she shouted as she fired another blast from one of her cubes. Danny flew out of the way, missing the beam by millimeters, and flew out of the warehouse. The huntress wasn't too far behind and chased after him, blasting a hole through the roof for easier access.

An intense chase started the ghost and the huntress. She started firing at every opertunity as the ghost just kept whizzing past. As many chances as he had, Danny never fought back. He just kept playing the mouse.

The dogfight lasted a good six minutes until a beeping was heard. The huntress checked her wrist, gasped, then stopped suddenly. She said to Danny, "We'll finish this next time!" She flew away after.

Danny gave a sigh of relief and said, "That was- wait a minute..." Danny checked his watch and saw it read 10:00 PM. "Oh shoot!" Danny flew off in a hurry.

Of all the places Danny could fly to, he flew straight into Fentonworks, home of Amity Park's top ghost researchers, Jack and Maddie Fenton. The only reason Danny flew there was because it was where he lived, they were his parents, and it was past his curfew.

Danny wasn't your average ghost. And he wasn't our average human, either. He was kind of both. In fact, Danny Phantom was just the alter-ego of Danny Fenton, a C-average fourteen-year-old who was a target to any school bully, until an accident with his parent's ghost portal, which could open a hole to what's known as "the Ghost Zone", gave him ghostly abilities. He keeps his secret to only his two friends, Sam and Tucker, and his older sister, Jazz, who had found Danny's secret out by herself.

Danny phased into his room and reverted back to his human form. A ring of light appeared around his waist and divided up and down Danny's body. His black and white jumpsuit turned into a white t-shirt and blue jeans, his snow white hair turned jet black, and his glowing, green eyes went to a regular blue.

Danny had changed back not a moment too soon. His father, Jack, came through the door with an upset look on his face. Danny hid the thermos behind his back, hoping his dad wouldn't ask. "And where you you exactly one minute and thirty-eight seconds ago?"

"Uh..." Danny tried thinking up a quick lie. "Here. The whole time."

"You were?" Jack asked. While he was a genius at creating ghost hunting devices, Jack had a tendincy of being incredibly single-minded. And a little childish.

"Yeah," Danny said, sursprised his dad bought into the act. "Didn't you see me come in?"

"No, I didn't." Jack said, scratching his head in confusion, then recommending to himself, "I really ought to start writing things like this down." He then told Danny, "Bed by eleven," and shut the door.

Danny gave a sigh of relief, threw the thermos on his bed, and turned on his computer. He started looking to see if any of his friends were online for a web chat. He found Sam, but not Tucker. He must've logged off before Danny could log on.

"Hey, Danny," Sam greeted through her webcam. "Isn't it past curfew for you?"

"Yeah," Danny answered. "Fortunately, my dad's an idiot and I got off the hook."

"Well, luck you," Sam said. "Ghost patrol must've been tough for you to miss curfew."

"Well," Danny said, "almost. I had a run-in with Valerie." Valerie Gray was the huntress Danny had fought earlier in the evening. It had been a long-time grudge since he accidently ruined her social life. She had earlier been given a battle suit and gear by Danny's long-time nemisis Vlad Masters. Danny destroyed the suit when a ghost named Technus had possessed it. Technus would only give Valerie a new, improved suit to keep Danny distracted to take over a powerful satalite. Danny destroyed the satalite, and Technus hasn't been heard from since (and for Danny's sake, good riddance).

"Please tell me you whooped her butt." Sam was anxious for a "yes". Sam never really got along with Valerie, what with wanting to waste Danny Phantom and all. She, like Tucker, was aware that Danny and Valerie had crushes on eachother outside their opposite lives. Another misunderstanding left that relationship to Danny and Valerie being just friends. Sam wanted Danny away from Valerie so she wouldn't hurt him in a physical or emotional way. Sam cared too much about Danny to let that happen... As a friend, of course.

"Sam, she's a human being," Danny reminded.

"Right, a human being who's out to get you."

"She's only out to get Danny Phantom."

"But say, by an off-chance, she catches Danny Phantom. What then?"

"Sam, stop putting these bad thoughts in my head. Anyway, I got to get to bed. Good night."

"Good night, Danny." Sam logged off and the window with her image disappeared. Danny then proceeded to shutting down his own computer.

As much as he hated the thought of it, Sam brought up a good point. What if Valerie had caught him? It probably wouldn't take long to discover his secret. What would she think of him then? Why was he worrying about that last one? He'd probably be dead by then. And why'd he have to bring that up? It was just another chapter in Danny's history of girl troubles. It's almost like every time a girl he liked liked him back, irony kicked him right in the teeth.

Danny put the thought away, picked up his pajamas, and headed for the bathroom.

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Well, there's chapter one. Next chapter, we switch to Valerie and see how she handles coming home late. Also'd like to say this is chapter marks the beginning of a pretty clever running joke if I do say so myself. Good night.


	2. In Her Head

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

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Technical Difficulties

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Chapter 2: In Her Head

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Valerie was jetting home constantly shouting, "Oh crud, oh crud, oh crud!" Maybe if she flew into her room and walked out like she never left, her dad wouldn't notice. It was possible.

Her apartment came into view. She flew in through the open window of her room. Upon arrival, her hoverboard disappeared and she landed firmly on her feet. She then became covered in what could be best described as a light purple whirlwind as her battle suit became her casual wear which consisted of an orange skirt, a yellow blouse, and an orange headband. She was just about to walk out in as unsuspicious of a manner as she could, until she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. She turned to where the sound came from to find her father, Damon, sitting on her bed.

"Uh," Valerie stammered, "I can explain."

"Ghost hunting?" Damon said. "Again?" Damon had been the only one to have known about Valerie's ghost hunting lifestyle (at least to Valerie's knowledge). He has never really been too big a fan of it, since it involved his daughter being in the line of fire.

"Dad, what else can I do when this town's full of ghosts?" Valerie exclaimed, trying to clear herself. "What if one suddenly takes over the city? The world even? Who else is gonna do it?"

"Valerie, this is the third time this week you came home late," Damon reminded, getting up from Valerie's bed. "Do you know how worried I get when you're out past curfew? What if something happens to you?" It had occoured to Damon that he was starting to lose his cool, something he didn't exactly like doing in front of his daughter. He took a calming sigh and said to her, "I'm sorry, Valerie, but you're the only thing I have left ever since your mom left us. The thought of you being out there fighting ghosts scares me more than the ghosts alone."

"I can understand how you feel, Dad," Valerie commented.

"I'm letting you off the hook this time," Damon said, exiting Valerie's room, "but I can't leave this unpunished forever. Bed by eleven." He then shut Valerie's door.

With the room to herself, Valerie layed on her bed to collect herself.

_He has a point, you know._

"Huh?" Valerie suddenly got up and looked around. She heard someone, but she couldn't see anyone.

_You're not going to find me. Not like that anyway._

"Who are you?" Valerie had to ask, mildly creeped out.

_No one special. Just think of me as your conscience, merely there to tell you right from wrong. And I sensed that your father, I believe he was, made a good point._

"Look," Valerie said, looking around the room in fear, "whoever you are, I really don't need a conscience. I know right from wrong."

_Maybe you should let me finish, I'd clear that point. Imagine a ghost knew your identity. They could easily get to your family and friends. Tell me, has that happened?_

"Well," Valerie recalled, "that one Phantom kid unmasked me in front of my dad while back. But, it was weird. It was like he knew who he was unmasking me in front of."

_There's one. It won't be too long until that ghost starts using him to get to you._

Valerie first showed a little fear at the thought, then realized how little help her "conscience" was despencing. "You're not helping, you know! In case you're interested, that Phantom kids is a real thorn in my side. He cost my dad his job as head of security at Axion Labs, ruined my social life, ruined my regular life, destroyed my original ghost hunting suit..."

_Okay, I get it, he bad!_

"But right now, it's almost like he's... holding back."

_He must be trying to make you let your guard down. That's the last thing you want to happen._

"Why are you telling me this?" Valerie asked. "Why do you want to know all this?"

_Think of me as someone to talk to when you're all alone. It was nice talking to you._

"Wait," Valerie said, "I'm not done!" She didn't get a response. The voice had gone. Aside from that, the voice was right. Phantom already knew who her dad was. It wouldn't be long until the ghost got to her friend, Danny. That thought worried her even more. She had to keep a cool head. She had let the voice's words go as she grabbed her nightgown and head to the bathroom.

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A relatively short chapter. It gets better, just keep an eye on it. I just got started with Valerie's brush with insanity. The serious Gray Ghost stuff don't happen til later.


	3. Just Friends?

kaaa: It says it's DxV right there on the summary. If you don't like that pairing, then don't read it! You didn't even let me go into the serious stuff yet. You better be annonamous(sp?)! Silly DxS-ers. Have no respect for the interesting, they do.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

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Technical Difficulties

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Chapter 3: Just Friends?

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The next morning, after getting dressed and packing his school things, Danny went downstairs for breakfast. He had expected to trigger one of his dad's new inventions, but as he entered the kitchen, he was greeted by nothing of the sort. He just saw his family acting normally in the kitchen. Hs mother, Maddie, was making eggs and bacon, his sister, Jazz, was catching up on her homework, and his father, Jack, writing stuff down on a notepad.

"7:18 AM," Jack said as he wrote in his pad, "Danny comes down for breakfast."

A bit baffled, Danny spoke to his mom by asking, "Mom, what's Dad doing?"

"Since last night," Maddie started answering, "you father's been keeping track of every little thing that he's seen happen." Danny recalled what Jack said after he got home. "He's taking it really seriously."

"Dare I ask how?" Danny said.

"He even marked down clipping his toenails into the trash can like a field goal from earlier this morning," Maddie mentioned.

"I was eight out of ten!" Jack said proudly.

"Suddenly, I've lost my appitite," Danny said, mildly disgusted. "I should be getting to school, anyway. Later, guys."

Danny walked out of the kitchen and out the door to his school, Casper High School, something Jack took quick note of. "7:19 AM: Danny leaves for school."

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After a relatively dull first half of class, lunch had come. As usual, Danny sat at a table with his best friends, Sam and Tucker. "You know, guys," Danny said, starting up some conversation, "I've been doing a lot of thinking about Valerie lately..."

"Gee, what else is new?" Sam said dryly.

"I kinda need your opinions on this," Danny said, a bit unsure.

"Ask away," Tucker said. "If there's anything that best friends are for, it's listening to another's troubles." He then took a drink out of his milk carton.

Danny sighed a bit and suggested, "What if I told Val about my powers?"

Tucker was taken completely by surprise at the question, spitting his milk out all over the cafateria floor. "You might as well be signing your will!" Tucker shouted at the sheer lunacy of Danny's question.

"Danny, what gave you that idea to begin with?" Sam asked.

"I was thinking that, you know," Danny began to explain, "since she sort of likes me and I sort of like her, maybe if I told her, the whole hunting me down thing might stop."

"Key word being 'might'," Sam added, not making it any easier on Danny.

"Besides," Tucker said, "she only wants to just be friends with you. And the last thing you want to do with a girl is 'ruin a perfectly good friendship'. Might I add in more ways than one"

"Yeah, I know," Danny said, "but-" He was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Hey, Danny." Valerie was walking towards Danny's table.

"V-Val, hi!" Danny said. His nerves suddenly kicked in not only at the fact that she hunted him part-time, but out of that feeling guys always get around girls they liked in their teen years. "Uh, have a seat?"

"Oh, uh, sure," Valerie said, more flattered than nervous. Valerie sat down next to Danny and began to engage in rather awkward conversation, ranging from, "How was you day?" to "How about that test?" and so on. Tucker was snickering uncontrolably at the amount of awkwardness.

"Um, Val," Danny started, "I kinda wanna tell you something..."

"Danny, can we talk?" Sam said immediately.

"Sure," Danny said.

After a pause, Sam finally indicated, "Alone?"

"Oh, um, okay," Danny said, realizing what Sam was talking about. The two got up from the table to move to another part of the cafateria, leaving Tucker and Valerie sitting by themselves, across from eachother.

"She'll learn to accept you eventually," Tucker assured to Valerie, before being grabbed and dragged by the ear by Sam.

On the other side of the cafateria, Sam had her friends in a huddle. "You're not just gonna tell her now, are you?" Sam asked Danny. "She's evil!"

"She's not evil," Danny said. "She just has me misunderstood. I'm sure if I explained everything to her..."

"You can't do it like that," Tucker added. "You gotta get the fire started again."

"I what?" Danny said with an eyebrow raised.

"Make that 'friendship' a little something more, you know?" Tucker said in a smooth tone.

"You're not helping, Tucker!" Sam butted in. "And weren't you against this earlier?"

"Not helping who?" Tucker said, which caused Sam to go red in the face. "Anyway, get it to a point where she'll like you no matter what you tell her. Besides, can you say 'crime-fighting duo'?"

"Tucker has a point," Danny said to Sam, "both ways." Sam rolled her eyes and the huddle was dismissed.

While that was happening, while Valerie was sitting and eating by her lonesome, she recieved a conversation starter from what she was sure was an unwanted guest.

_Who was he?_

"You again?" Valerie said, keeping quiet not to gather any odd looks. "I'm eating lunch. Can't you come around in a place less public? Maybe never?"

_Answer the question._

"If you have to know," Valerie said, keeping her head down to appear a little less crazy, "that was Danny. He's a friend. _Just_ a friend."

_Why do I sense a little more?_

"No one asked you, you asked me! So why don't you just shut up and leave me- Danny, hi!" She quickly stopped talking to whoever when Danny was coming back.

"Is something wrong, Val?" Danny asked, aking his seat next to Valerie and sensing odd behavior.

"I'm fine, it's just I thought I had something on my skirt," Valerie said to cover. "So, you said you wanted to tell me something?"

"Oh, um, uh, well, uh..." Danny was trying to find an excuse to cover for his earlier thing he was going to tell Valerie. He looked to Sam and Tucker for suggestions (to which he got none), then came up with, "Well, Sam, Tucker and I are gonna go bowling later tonite, and we'd like you to join us." Sam slapped her head at Danny's lameness.

"Sure," Valerie answered. "Just as friends, right?"

"Yeah, friends, totally," Danny said quickly. They offered prelonged looks and gave off nervous chuckles.

Later, after the lunch bell rang, Danny and Valerie gave their good-byes and headed for their next class. Sam and Tucker followed Danny to converse. "Bowling?" Sam said. "Was that the best you could think of?"

"Don't say it, Danny," Tucker said, predicting what would come up.

"Could you think of any better?" Danny asked.

"Yeah," Sam said. "How about, 'We shouldn't be seeing eachother'?"

"Told you not to say it," Tucker told Danny.

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I must admit that the ending's a little lacking, but hey, I like it. Now, what'll happen at the bowling alley? Will magical things happen? Likely. Will the title have a lame bowling pun? You bet!


	4. Spare This Moment

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

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Technical Difficulties

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Chapter 4: Spare This Moment

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School ended almost the same way it started: relatively slow. After school, Danny went home to blow his free time on video games. It would have been more enjoyable if his dad hadn't took note of every advancement in Danny's process as he passed by. After spending his last half hour on homework, he would meet his friends for bowling. It would also be his chance to hook back up with Valerie, opposite lives aside. He hopped onto his mo-ped and took off to the alley.

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The bowling evening went along very smoothly. Danny had just picked up a 4-7-10 split to pick up a spare, retrieving an impressed applaud from his friends. Sam, however, had lacked the pleasant mood to clap, considering Valerie was not only with them, but seated next to her. To Sam's relief, Valerie was up next, so she didn't have to be so close a moment longer.

Bowling wasn't one of Valerie's strong suits. She'd been struggling the entire night. This frame was no different. She threw the ball down the alley, to which it slowly began to curve to the right and only knock down the one pin in the back row. It was quite evident that she was frustrated.

Looking for a humorous way to cheer her up, Danny shouted, "Don't worry, Val! At least you're knocking down the hard ones!" Valerie looked at him with a look of unamusement, which quickly turned into a giggle as soon as Danny flashed an "I didn't mean it that way" grin.

As Valerie was setting up for her second shot, somethign happened with Danny which (fortunately for him) she didn't see. A blue vapor escaped from his mouth. This was his ghost sense, and it went off everytime a ghost was near. Finding a way to excuse himself and save the evening, Danny quickly said, "Bathroom!" and rushed to where he said he'd be.

Keeping Danny's absence out of mind, Valerie put her focus on the pins. She threw her ball down and managed to knock down what emained for the spare. She was ecstatic over her first big play of the game. If only Danny had saw it. ...Not that it mattered or anything.

"Wow," Sam said, showing more sarcasm than impressment, "you really do a lot better with Danny not around. Hey..."

"Grow up, Manson!" Valerie barked back. "We're just as much friends as-" She stopped speaking as soon as she saw a floating trail of hot dogs and hamburgers from the snack bar behind Sam and Tucker move towards the entranceway. Needing an excuse to investigate, Valerie quickly said, "Bathroom!" and rushed to where she said she'd be.

"What's her rush?" Sam asked. She then took notice of the moving meat selections and the screams of terror from people who just wanted to bowl.

"That," Tucker answered, also noticing the hurrying food.

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The bowling alley parking lot was, without warning, being attacked by a giant monster made of meat. As an old saying goes, "The real woman lies beneath the make-up," and this monster (or ghost, rather) was no exception. This ghost was the Lunch Lady, one of the first ghosts Danny had ever fought. She had the appearence of a big blob of meat, but beneath that beefy exterior was the spirit of a kind-looking old woman with an unpredictable breaking point. She had come back for another round with Danny, and without a Fenton Thermos, all Danny could do was keep her busy.

Danny was firing ghost ray after ghost ray at her, all of which had little effect. The Lunch Lady fought back by blasting Danny with countless amounts of t-bone, slamming him hard on the pavement.

"You will parish under my sirloin!" the Lunch Lady gloated, then presenting a plate and gently asking, "Pie?"

Rather than asking where the heck she got the dessert, Danny flew at full speed at the Lunch Lady, ramming into her meaty body leaving a hole in her gut.

"Face it, Lunch Lady," Danny said, shooting a powerful blast at her that caused her to explode, "you're past your prime!"

After the meat cleared, all that stood (or hovered) left was the Lunch Lady in her true form, hairnet and all. "We'll meet again, boy!" she shouted before disappearing into the sky.

"Well, that was close," Danny said to himself. "Now I can-" A bright purple beam hit Danny in the back before he could complete his sentence.

"-get back to me?" Danny spun around to find Valerie battle-ready on her hoverboard behind him. "I'm right here, Phantom! Come and get me!"

"Listen, I don't want to hurt-" Danny was blasted again by Valerie, sending him into a downward spiral like a biplane. Valerie found this moment a good time to finish him off.

Danny got control back and noticed Valerie was right on his tail. Rather than fly back up and lead her elsewhere, he chose to keep plummeting. Valerie was right on his tail, choosing her shot. She had a clear target, but before she could even fire, Danny flew out of his dive parallel to the street. Valerie couldn't react fast enough and plowed into the pavement.

"You brought that on yourself!" Danny shouted before retreating.

After Valerie came to, she looked around to notice the ghost boy was nowhere in sight. She started feeling angry with herself on letting her target get away, then remembered, "Oh, shoot! Danny!" She flew back to the side of the bowling alley and through the window to the lady's room making sure it was clear to enter first. After she was positive it was empty, she slipped through the window and changed back to her regular attire before exiting through the door. To her amazement, she found Danny come out of the boys room almost the exact same time she came out. Danny looked equally surprised.

"Wow, Danny," Valerie said, a bit nervous, "uh, you must've been in there-"

"-a long time, yeah," Danny said, equally nervous. "I bet you were in there-"

"-the same amount of time? No, I was barely in there. You must've had-"

"-I'm not even gonna finish that for you." They both laughed at what they expected. "Let's finish that game. I bet Sam and Tucker are worried about us."

> > > > > >

After a rousing game of bowling, Danny offered Valerie a ride home on his scooter. Valerie accepted, ignoring Sam's gagging. When the two arrived at Valerie's appartment building, Valerie got off and said to Danny, "I had a good time. Even if I am a pretty lousy bowler."

"You'll get better, I'm sure," Danny assured. "So, can I walk you to your doorstep, or something?"

"No, I can take myself," Valerie said. She knew Danny was trying to make his move on her, but tried to keep their friendship just that. The last thing she wanted was for Danny to get involved in her ghost hunting duty.

"I think I should get going before this gets any more awkward," Danny said before riding off. As he rode home, he shouted back, "Bye, Val!"

"See you at school tomorrow, Danny!" Val said back with a farewell of her own. She watched him ride off until he was out of view and then went to her appartment.

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About the title, was it a bowling pun or a meat pun? Kept you wondering, didn't it?


	5. Problems at Home

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

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Technical Difficulties

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Chapter 5: Problems at Home

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Danny arrived home on time for a change. After parking his scooter in the garage, he went inside the house to find his family watching family quality programing on TV. They all noticed Danny entering, and for the first time in a long time, Danny didn't care that they did.

"8:43 PM," Jack wrote down, "Danny arrives home." Jack suddenly got a baffled look on his face. He looked back at the notepad, then the clock, going, "Wait a minute, that can't be right."

"Hey, guys," Danny said to his family. He then turned to his sister and asked, "Hey Jazz, do you think we can talk?"

"Sure," Jazz simply answered.

Getting nothing but a pause, Danny added, "...uh, alone?"

Maddie gasped in delight and said, "Our children are sharing secrets! They're bonding just like real model siblings! You kids talk. Your father and I will be in the kitchen."

"But I wanna hear!" Jack complained.

"Jack Fenton! Kitchen! NOW!" Maddie shouted to her husband. Jack groaned in complaint and followed Maddie. The teens gave strange looks to their parents as they exited the room.

"So, Danny," Jazz said to her brother, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Well," Danny said, a little unsure of how to put it, "there's this... girl..."

"It's Sam, isn't it?" Jazz asked.

"No, of course it's not!" Danny said truthfully.

"Danny, please," Jazz said, "I know how this works. It's like that whole 'I have this friend...' thing in cartoons. They're clearly refering to themselves. So your whole 'There's this girl...' thing clearly mentions a girl you're close to. That being Sam."

"Jazz, I'm dead serious," Danny said. "It's not Sam."

"Okay, so it's not Sam," Jazz said, unbelieving, "but it's clearly a 'like her-like her' issue."

"Yeah, it is," Danny said. "Should I tell this girl about my ghost powers?"

"I thought she already knew."

"IT'S NOT SAM!"

Jazz had finally confirmed that Danny wasn't talking about Sam from his tone of voice. "Okay, so it's really not Sam," Jazz said, taking Danny seriously. "What makes you so sure that she's the one? Does she like you back?"

"Well," Danny said, looking for the best answer, "in a way."

"Is she someone you'd do anything to protect?"

"Well, I do my best to make sure no harm comes to her."

"And, on a random note, do you find yourselves finshing eachother's sentences?"

"Yeah, we just did that tonight!"

"She's the one, Danny," Jazz exclaimed in a sense of Eureka. "This, to me sounds like teen love in the classic sense. You can tell her that ghost thing and she'll like you all the same."

"Um, I kinda forgot to mention," Danny said uneasily, "that she's a ghost hunter."

Jazz suddenly became stunned by the look on her face. "You mean you... But she... Does she... And you... Wow." She was clearly at a loss of words and a loss of theories. To cover this, she gave a fake yawn and said aloud to no one in particular, "Wow, is it this late already? I better get to bed." She then retreated for the stairs.

"It's only a quarter til nine!" Danny said back.

"Early to bed, early to rise!" Jazz quoted as she went straight to her room.

Feeling glum, Danny went to the kitchen and told his parents, "Session's over, you can come out now."

"Finally!" Jack screamed, then wrote down, "8:45 PM: Jazz and Danny finish talking." He quickly interviewed his son. "What was it about? School project? Anything juicy?"

"It's nothing, Dad," Danny said as he retreated to his room.

> > > > > >

As Valerie Sat on the couch watching TV, her father came back from work. "Valerie, I'm home!" he said with a bag in hand. "And I brought home dinner."

"That's great," Valerie said to her dad.

"Well, this is different," Damon said as he sat next to her daughter, getting a burger out of the bag.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Valerie said, giving her father a sly look.

"I'm only joking," Damon said, then adding, "Mostly..." under his breath.

Valerie took another burger out of the bag Damon came in with.

_We should talk._

"What?" Valerie said, looking around.

"I didn't say anything," Damon said. With some concern, Damon asked her daughter, "Is something wrong, Val?"

"No, it's just, uh," Valerie stumbled, "I need to be excused for a second." Valerie got up and headed for the bathroom.

"Okay," Damon said, trusting his daughter. "If anything's wrong, I'm always here."

_Smooth._

As much as Valerie wanted to tell the voice to shut up out loud, she didn't want to raise any suspicion with her dad.

As soon as Valerie made it to the bathroom, she locked the door and whispered, "What do you want now?"

_That was an interesting date you were on._

"It wasn't a date!" Valerie said, peeved at the voice. "Danny is just a friend. I don't know how many more times I have to say that."

_Keep telling yourself that. You know your feelings. Anyway, what about that ghost kid? He was also at the alley, wasn't he?_

"Yeah, he was," Valerie recalled. "He's always showing up trying to ruin everything for me."

_Even your date?_

"IT WASN'T-"

_Take this into account: what makes you so sure that the ghost kid was after you?_

"What are you trying to say?" Valerie asked, only to be answered by silence. She gained a horrible thought, then asked, "Are you trying to say he's after..." She didn't want to complete her question. The thought was bad enough. Mentioning it aloud would be too much. After more silence, quietly yelled, "Answer me!" Again, nothing. She figured it would be best to clear her mind and leave the bathroom to eat with her dad.

> > > > > >

Oooh, this is getting heartbreaking, isn't it? R&R! Or just R, rather.


	6. Questionable Happenings

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

> > > > > >

Technical Difficulties

> > > > > >

Chapter 6: Questionable Happenings

> > > > > >

Later that night, Valerie went online to have an IM conversation with Danny. They went on to talk about their evening together.

"Come on," Danny had typed, "you weren't that bad."

"Bowling just isn't really my thing," Valerie typed. She then typed, "And what was up with Sam?"

"I'm sure we both know what she's thinking of us," Danny had typed. Another message of his quickly popped up and said, "But we're not."

"Of course not," Valerie responded. Wanting to get off an awkward topic, Valerie typed, "Did you see that story of ghost attack in the news today?" Valerie waited for a response. She had waited well over a minute, a curiously long time to come up with a simple answer. A little worried, she typed, "Are you still there?" She got a quick response, but it wasn't a yes or no.

"I'm coming to get you..."

Before she could ask what that even meant, Valerie's mouse had risen on its own, giving off an eerie green glow. It struck like a snake as it wrapped itself around Valerie's arms and body. She decided it was best to abandon her computer while her legs were still available, but her keyboard, giving the same glow, saw quickly to that as they wrapped around her ankles, tripping her halfway to the door.

Valerie turned her body over to the now brightly shining computer moniter. Shining so bright was one thing, but white gloved hands emerging out of it scared Valerie senseless. The hands pulled themselves out to reveal her hated nemesis, Danny Phantom. He was different somehow, as if more bent on Valerie's destruction. His incredibly dastardly grin revealed as much, anyway.

Valerie knew what she had to do, but when she tried, she couldn't. She couldn't change into her ghost hunting suit. It had to have been the poccessed hardware. Valerie was now more paniced than when she was tied up.

Phantom pulled himself out of the computer screen and walked toward Valerie. His hand started glowing as he approached.

"You know," he said in a twisted matter, "you're kinda cute when you're about to be destroyed." He took aim with his glowing hand and fired at her.

> > > > > >

"AAHHH!" Valerie screamed as she woke up in a cold sweat. It was all just a dream. It was the third nightmare she had tonight, and she wasn't getting enough sleep because of it. She decided to just nod it off and get back to sleep. That is she would have until her alarm clock went off ten seconds in. Was it time to get up already? Valerie shut the alarm off and reluctantly got out of bed, moaning the whole way through, to get ready for school.

> > > > > >

The entire day seemed tiresome, according to Valerie Gray. She had already dozed off twice during the day, all thanks to a bad night's sleep.

"Ms. Gray? MS. GRAY!"

"Huh, wha!" ...Uh, three times. Fortunately, it was the last school period of the day, which meant serious snozze time for Valerie when she gets home. That is, if she can avoid punishment from her science teacher, Mr. Falluca.

"If you want to pass this class," Mr. Falluca warned, "I suggest you stay awake." He then continued to teach his lesson with the use of an overhead projector.

All the while, Danny, who was sitting next to Valerie, was showing concern for his classmate. "Are you okay, Val?" Danny asked. "You look like a wreck."

"I'm okay," Valerie said, rubbing her eyes. "Science is just a boring-" Before she could finish her joke, Valerie saw what she was sure was a figment of her imagination. She rubbed her eyes again, and the image only seemed more real.

Mr. Falluca's overhead projector had become some kind of monster. The projecting lens had become a bloodshot red eye supported by a wiggling antennae, the small legs had become clawed paws like that of a panther, and the body had suddenly gained a mouth, frothing with green foam and filled with teeth that made razor blades look dull. It stared Valerie down as it released a mighty growl.

Never one to ask questions first, Valerie lept out of her seat toward the fire extinguisher, atheletic enough to do it in a single bound. She grabbed the extinguisher and shot full blast at the projector. After the contents were empty and the smoke cleared, Valerie was pleased to see the projector back to normal. Her feeling of triumph suddenly went sour after seeing a displeased Mr. Falluca, covered with foam along with several other students.

"Ms. Gray," Mr. Faluca began to ask, "can you tell me why you ruined the projector?"

"But," Valerie stammered, "it was a vicious-"

"I was only giving an important lesson," Mr. Falluca explained, "until you decided to disrupt the classroom, use the fire extinguisher outside a state of emergency, and damage school property. I'll have to ask you to see Mr. Lancer after school. Are we clear?"

Without an excuse to back it up, Valerie simply answered, "Yes, sir," and slowly walked back to her seat.

> > > > > >

After school, Valerie went to Mr. Lancer's room as told. Mr. Lancer was not only one of the school's English teachers, but he's also its vice principal. He was also, as pointed out many times, very out of shape. Valerie took a seat and awaited Mr. Lancer's punishment.

"Valerie Gray," Mr. Lancer began, "according to what Mr. Falluca has told me, you've gotten yourself in a heaping load of trouble. Now, from what your other teachers told me, you must have had a hard time sleeping, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir," Valerie answered. "I was having these weird dreams."

"Ah, yes, the nightmare plea," Mr. Lancer recognized. "It's best I do what I've done with the others..." He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a piece of paper for Valerie. He put the paper on Valerie's desk and said, "I want a one hundred word essay on the importance of sleep. You may leave when you're done."

As Mr. Lancer walked back to his desk, Valerie started writing her paper. If having to spend six hours on boring lectures on a bad night's sleep was bad enough, now she had to write an essay. And in a quiet classroom, that's a one-way ticket to snoozeville.

She snapped back to full awake when she heard something mechanical from overhead. She chose to ignore it, thinking it was all in her head. Valerie looked up when she heard it a second time. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but with a third hum, the glass that covered the florescent lighting dropped like a hatch. A thin tube-shaped cannon with green and silver mechanical nonsense lowered. It gave a low hum as it took aim for Mr. Lancer, who was at his desk grading tests, oblivious to what was going on. Valerie went straight back to her paper. The last one had to be a non-sleep illusion, this one is no different.

Valerie quickly changed her mind when the cannon not only hummed louder and at a higher pitch, but gave the room a green glow from the laser's charge. A vast majority of the room gained a green tint. The walls, the desks, even Mr. Lancer's bright, bald head. Convinced this was no illusion, Valerie darted out of her seat to save her teacher.

"Mr. Lancer, look out!" Valerie cried as the cannon fired. She pushed Mr. Lancer out of the way. They both hit the ground as the laser fired by the cannon barely missed them and made contact with the blackboard, giving off a deafening explosion.

"_Sarah, Plain and Tall!_" Mr. Lancer cried out in pain. "My back! Ms. Gray, what in the name of Jules Verne is wrong with you!"

"But I just saved your-!" Valerie explained, pointing to where the cannon was, only to find out it had disappeared. "But this cannon shot at-!" She pointed back at the blackboard to find it was perfectly clean with not an ounce of debris to be found. Valerie was shocked. "But it was-!"

"Another sleep-deprived hallusination I can only assume," Mr. Lancer said, getting up into a hunched over position. "Something I'm sure another fifty words in your essay can cure."

"But-!"

"No buts!" Mr. Lancer said, still bitter about his injury. "You may leave when you finish. And on your way out, contact a chiropractor."

"Valerie had no choice but to follow orders. The last thing she wanted was fifty more words.

> > > > > >

After going through what she felt was the longest day in her life, Valerie finally got home, but very exhausted. She was just about to enter her room for a well needed rest when she was stopped by her father.

"Valerie, I got a call from the school," Damon mentioned. "Are you-?"

"I'M NOT CRAZY!" Valerie shouted as she slammed her door. The last thing she needed was another reminder of what happened. She approached her bed and fell into it face first, sleeping her worries away.

> > > > > >

Geez, it does not get any easier for Val. Things are about to get a lot harder for her next chapter.


	7. The Wrong Idea

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are copyright to Nickelodeon.

> > > > > >

Technical Difficulties

> > > > > >

Chapter 7: The Wrong Idea

> > > > > >

Late into the night, as shops were wrapping up for the night, Danny scouted the town for last minute ghost patrol with a Fenton Thermos in his backpack. He told his parents he was going to hang out with Sam and Tucker, which he did up until ten minutes to ten. The Lunch Lady was still on the loose, and Danny knew how destructive she could be if not attended to. He didn't understand how the Lunch Lady hadn't even showed a blip on the radar all day. She was either planning big or not really planning, just waiting. During his flight above the town, he was talking to Sam on his cell phone.

"There was seriously something wrong with her today," Danny said to Sam. He was talking about Valerie and her strange behavior in class earlier in the morning.

"Apparently," Sam said, "she's been hunting ghosts so long, they just appear in front of her without explanation."

"It couldn't be that," Danny said. "She probably got a bad night's sleep. She fell asleep a lot. Or maybe..." Danny was cut off by his ghost sense. He knew what that could mean. "The Lunch Lady!"

"You're saying she went crazy in science class because of the Lunch Lady?" Sam asked, misunderstanding what she overheard. "There's not one ounce of ham in that plot, thank goodness."

"No, I mean I just detected the Lunch Lady," Danny said. "I'm just over the Nasty Burger."

"I told you that that was the first place you should've looked!" Sam reminded.

"Excuse me for thinking outside the box!" Danny argued while a mighty meaty burger flew out the window. "I gotta go. I have a ghost to catch." He hung up and flew through the restaurant's roof the battle and capture the Lunch Lady.

Unknown to Danny, he was being watched from atop another building. Valerie kept a close eye on him with a zoom feature in her visor. "It ends tonight," Valerie said to herself as she psyched herself up to finish Danny Phantom off once and for all.

_Good things come to those who wait._

Irritated, Valerie said, "You come in at the most inappropriate times, you know that?"

_I'm just saying._

"Saying what?"

_See where the ghost boy goes next. You could learn of his hideout, or his attack pattern._

"I don't have time for that!" Valerie explained. "This has to be done now. I've gotta be back home in..." she observed her watch to see another minute tick by. "Six minutes! Dad'll only believe I'm with Danny for so long." She saw another mighty meaty burger fly out another window of the Nasty Burger.

_Technically, you are. Isn't Danny the first name of that ghost kid?_

"Do _not_ mention that!" Valerie warned. "I refuse to call Phantom by his first name! ...Uh, not for that reason, or anything. I mean, it _is_ that reason, but, you know, not in _that_ way."

_Pff. Feelings..._

"What was that?" Valerie asked. Before she could get an explanation, there was a bright light within the Nasty Burger. Within seconds, it was gone, and Danny flew back out of the eatery with a smoking thermos in hand. He put the thermos in his backpack and looked at his wrist, likely for the time.

"I can make it there in time," he said as he flew away.

"...Make it where?" Valerie wondered. Where could Phantom need to be? And why does a ghost need a schedule?

_Follow him._

The voice was practically taunting her. "I'll only see where he goes, and then it's straight back home," Valerie said as she jetted off, keeping her distance so Danny wouldn't catch on. The last thing Valerie wanted was for someone to get hurt for her carelessness, but then again, her father could still punish her for getting back late. The "trying to save people" excuse could only result to the "you could've been killed" counter. Maybe he was gonna attack a place that was already closed. Valerie can live with that on her back.

Three minutes passed and Valerie was still following Danny. She beginning to get irritated that Phantom may be leading her to nowhere and she'd get punished for nothing. It was then that a familiar building came into view. It was a brick building with a large metal station on the roof. Below the station was a neon sign that said "Fenton Works". It was Danny's house. Danny Fenton's house.

Normally, Valerie would just fly past the building and continue pursuit of the ghost boy, but it all changed when she saw him decend. She slowed down and hovered behind a tree, hiding herself in the leaves. The she watched as the ghost boy touched ground and approached the porch. Valerie gasped. The voice had been right. The ghost boy was targeting the ones she cared about, and Danny Fenton was first on the list.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE!" Valerie shouted, darting towards Phantom without even thinking.

"Huh?" was all Danny could get out of his mouth before being victim of a high speed tackle. He was pulled a pretty long distance before he just phased through her, leaving Valerie flying nowhere. When she realized what happened, Valerie spun her board around to find Danny flying back to the Fenton house. Valerie made sure he didn't get too far by firing a beam from her wrist. She hit her target in a single shot, to which he hit the ground rolling. He got back up to look into the eyes of the rival he'd rather not have.

"Don't go near that house!" Valerie ordered.

"It isn't what it looks like!" Danny defended himelf, only to turn it worse. "...Well, it kinda was, but not in your sense. What did it look like to you?"

"Like you were trying to eliminate the Fenton Family, maybe?" Valerie said in an angry sarcastic tone.

"Bingo!" Danny said, giving Valerie a worse impression than he was getting at. He was zapped again by another beam. Valerie approached Danny while he was on one knee, recooperating. He corrected his previous statement, saying, "I meant that that wasn't what it was."

"Do I have to remind you," Valerie grabbed Danny's suit color, "that not all humans," she flew him high into the air and put her fist against his stomach, "are SAPS!" She fired another shot square into Danny's gut. Danny was sent flying. After he regained himself, Danny flew away from Valerie, having to further distance himself from his house. Valerie took this as a challenge and pursued.

With Valerie hot on his trail, Danny looked at his watch for the time. 9:59 PM. He had serious doubts he'd end this dogfight in time, but stopping it now would be a good start. "Don't you have someplace else to be?" Danny asked, figuring Valerie had an identical curfew.

"It'll all be worth it once you're destroyed!" Valerie aid firing another shot, which Danny just avoided. So much for plan A. Instead, he just kept flying until he found an alley with a dumpster near it. He flew down as fast as he could to get his plan to work just right.

After he touched down, he warned Valerie with, "I really don't wanna do this!" Valerie, always the persistant type, ignored Danny's warning and flew at him again. Having no choice, Danny took a deep breath and let out his most powerful form of attack: his Ghostly Wail. Danny screamed loudly, sending visable, powerful sound waves in Valerie's direction. The wail took Valerie completely by surprise as she found herself flying against a hurricanic force. She pushed herself harder and harder against the wail until her board became to stressed to continue. Valerie was thrown back so much a distance from that wail.

Danny, having drained all his energy in that one attack, reverted back to his human form and dropped to his knees. He looked around to find Valerie was gone, but he knew she wouldn't stay that way. He got back up on shaky legs to finds where that dumpster was and ran to it to hide inside. He peered through its lid to keep an eye out for the young huntress.

Valerie did indeed come back and scanned the area where she last found the ghost boy. She looked all over to not find him in sight. She was clearly angry, letting out a calming scream. She figured the ghost boy couldn't have gotten far and jetted somewhere else.

Danny saw it all. He popped his head out of the dumpster as she flew away. "I'm sorry," he quietly apologized, his head held low. He got out of the dumpster and headed home.

> > > > > >

Danny's walk home took longer than expected. He arrived home eight minutes past curfew, surely something that would get his parents mad. Upon reaching the doorstep, he took a deep breath and walked inside, expecting his punishment.

"10:08 PM," Jack said, "Danny comes back home." Danny found his dad sitting on the couch as if waiting for him. After writing down what just happened, Jack went over to his son with his notepad in hand. "Son, tell me what this is."

"Um," Danny was almost afraid to answer with Jack's tone of voice. "Your notepad?"

"Yes," Jack responded. "Now flip through it to see what I wrote down at 9:00 PM."

Danny flipped the pads many entries until he found the requested time. "Raided freezer for neopolitan ice cream?"

"Uh, the other one," Jack quickly said.

"Danny went out with friends," Danny read.

"Good. Now look through what happened at 10:00 PM. Does it say 'Danny comes back home'?"

"No, it doesn't."

"You know what that means, don't you?"

"You're gonna tell me anyway, aren't you?"

"Victory for the Jack-man!" Jack shouted in trimph rather than in scold. "You are grounded, mista!" Jack started doing a gyrating dance as if he had just scored a game-winning touchdown while chanting, "Uh-huh! That's right! Who's your daddy? I'm your daddy! To your room, now! Take a shower! 'Cause you smell bad!"

Not sure whether to pout or laugh histarically, Danny did as he was told and headed upstairs.

> > > > > >

Valerie was in so much trouble. She had been so preoccupied trying to find Phantom, she lost track of time. She was now ten minutes past her curfew.

She had finally arrived at her appartment building, choosing to get to the door by foot rather than just fly through her window. She entered the building after shifting to her regular attire.

After making it into her apartment, she saw her father sitting on the couch with an annoyed look on his face. "Ten minutes, Valerie," Damon said.

"Dad, let me explain," Valerie said, never even able to begin.

"I've been waiting here worried sick about you for ten minutes!" Damon shouted, getting up from his seat. "You weren't with Danny at all, were you?"

"I had more important-"

"You were out there trying to give me a heart attack by more ghost hunting!"

"But Dad-!"

"No buts!" Damon interupted. "You are grounded, young lady! And if I ever here about you hunting ghosts for the next week, don't thing I won't hesitate to extend that period! Go to your room!"

"But-"

"NOW!" Damon shouted, pointing to the door to her room. Valerie, on the verge of tears, did as she was told and headed to her room with her head hung low.

After Valerie closd the door to her room, it gave Damon time to calm down. He couldn't remember any time he was so angry, and with his own daughter nonetheless. Damon took his seat againand buried his face in his hands. He could only hope that Valerie was taking his outburst less than he was.

Meanwhile in her room, Valerie laid on her bed in a depressed heap. If only she had just ignored the voice and taken out Phantom at the Nasty Burger, all would've been well.

_What did I tell you?_

Valerie grew irritated by hearing that voice. "It's all your fault, you know," Valerie said, putting the blame on the voice. "If you'd have just let me do my thing..."

_Think of it this way: I was right, wasn't I?_

That horrible thought came into Valerie's mind again as she remembered Phantom at the Fenton's place. "No, that can't be it," Valerie said in a worried tone. "He probably just wanted to steal some of the Fenton's equitment, or trash their lab or something."

_Keep telling yourself that. You know the reason. Do yourself a favor and remove him from your life. You know, to protect him._

"I can't do that," Valerie said almost immediately. "There's gotta be another way!" She was open for suggestions, but recieved none. "Tell me something!" Still nothing. "I'm not doing that you know!" After finishing yelling into open air, she calmed down and prepared herself for bed.


	8. The Hardest Thing

I just wanna start by saying this chapter was a huge pain to write. I had to figure out how to get that emotion thing just right in writing, my computer crashed on me, and I lost the disc that I had the original draft. So, now I'm writing this think AGAIN on my dad's computer, which has the world's loudest space bar. Not to mention finals and post-graduation stuff with my family. This had better be bloody worth it.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

> > > > > >

Technical Difficulties

> > > > > >

Chapter 8: The Hardest Thing

> > > > > >

Another night in Amity Park. Going against her father's wishes, Valerie took the night to patrol the town on her hoverboard for ghosts. Upon flight, she spotted a green beam in the sky. Feeling it came from her arch rival, Valerie quickly over with an action-ready grin on her face.

She arrived at the beam's origin, which happened to be Fenton Works. The beam did indeed come from Danny Phantom, whom she found fighting on top of the giant station battling... Danny Fenton? Valerie was shocked. She didn't expect Danny to be fighting Phantom at all, let alone on top of the station.

He was firing at Phantom with an ecto-gun and never actually hit the ghost. For the son of ghost hunters, he was awfully clumbsy with ghost weaponry. It was only proved moreso when Phantom shot the gun out of Danny's hand. Danny, clutching his hand in pain, looked scared for his life as the ghost boy started to close in on him.

Unable to watch anymore, Valerie took action and jetted over the station, summoning her blaster cubes to fire at Phantom. Phantom saw the attack and flew out of the path of every shot fired. He then retaliated with a powerful blast of his own. So powerful, in fact, that upon hitting Valerie, her armor and hoverboard completely disintagrated, her casual wear being all that remained. Without a board to fly on, Valerie screamed as she plummeted to the ground below. She didn't have to fall too far, as she landed rolling on the rooftop of a house just across the street from Fenton Works. Still hurting, Valerie rose back up to helplessly observe the action.

Little to Phantom's knowledge, Danny was trying toretrieve his gun. Phantom quickly turned around and shot a ghost ray at Danny before he could lay a finger on the gun, sending him over and off the station. Danny was unbelievably fortunate (much to Valerie's relief), for he grabbed onto the antenna of a satalite before he could fall down any further. Valerie quickly saw it wouldn't last too long, as Phantom flew above Danny and simply hovered overhead.

"Don't do it!" Valerie pointlessly shouted. Phantom chose not to listen and fired a ray at the dish, causing it to explode and send Danny screaming and plummeting to the concrete below.

Valerie never realized how a forty-foot drop can seem like an eternity when it was happening to someone she cared about.

> > > > > >

"DANNY!" Valerie screamed, waking up from another horrible dream. It must have been her most realistic yet, as she was still feeling the effects from landing on the roof of the building.

The dream had Valerie very distressed, causing her to sob. "What am I supposed to do?" Valerie wheeped. It was always possible that Phantom wasn't after Danny at all, but recent occourances have pointed out the opposite. The voice had the only good solution, much to Valerie's disliking. How could she say good-bye to her friend?

...Friend. As if Valerie really saw it that way. While she and Danny couldn't stand eachother at first, but after an evening wit him that could best be described as magical, something clicked. She really liked Danny, which was an emotion that never seemed to go away, even after saying that he and she should only be friends after that incident she had with Phantom in space. She didn't expect that Phantom would go so far as to hurt, if not kill Danny to make defeating her easier. But what about everyone else she cared for? Would that mean she'd have seclude herself from everyone to keep her town safe? Most of all, would she ever love again after tommorow.

> > > > > >

Morning arrived to the students of Casper High. Many of the students took the their pre-class time to converse about the latest in pop culture and whatnot. Danny was no exception, only choosing a much different subject to talk about to his friends at a table in the school's courtyard. His being that occourance with Valerie the night before that got him in a heap of trouble.

"So, with the exception of school," Danny said, "I'm not allowed to leave the house for a week."

"Look on the bright side," Tucker said, trying to lighen up his good buddy, "at least you don't have to worry about the Lunch Lady anymore."

"And to think this could've all been avoided," Sam decided to add in, never really finishing her point.

"I know where you're getting at, Sam," Danny interupted. "I don't blame Valerie at all. She's probably in the same situation I'm in right now. It almost makes _me_ feel like the bad guy."

"So now you're agreeing with me about her being evil?" Sam asked.

Tucker stood up with his arms raised and shouted at Sam, "What is wrong with you, woman!"

"Am I interupting something?" The three turned to see Valerie wasn't to far from the table where Danny, Sam, and Tucker were. Tucker gave a nervous chuckle and sat back down.

"You wern't interupting anything," Danny answered, blushing from embarassment. "We were just talking about... uh... I forget. Did you want to join in?"

"Actually, Danny," Valerie said, a little glum, "we need to talk." Danny nodded in approval. His friends merely watched. "Alone."

"No problem," Tucker answered. "Sam and I don't mind you two talking alone together at all."

"I mind," Sam said, protectively.

"I said 'we don't mind' first," Tucker said. He then picked Sam up, knowing she wouldn't leave Danny with Valerie too easily, and said "You two play nice!" before running off.

"HEY!" Sam shouted, clearly disagreeing with what was happening right now as she was carried to the other side of the school.

Now alone with Danny, Valerie took the seat across from Danny. She took a deep breath and said, "Danny, I really don't know how to tell you this. Things are just getting really hard for me right now and-" Valerie paused and sniffed hard, holding back her feelings.

"Val," Danny started to ask, clearly concerned, "are you o-"

"Danny, I can't see you anymore," Valerie quickly said, starting to breakdown.

Danny was a little confused. From the way she said it, he felt that Valerie must've cared for him like he cared for her. "Val, I don't really understand," Danny said. "I don't know how that'll work. I mean, we have some classes together, and..."

_He doesn't get the message, does he?_

"WILL YOU JUST GO AWAY?" Valerie shouted angrily at the voice, not caring who else heard. Danny definately did, and was stunned by it. Valerie tried explaining herself, stammering, "No, Danny, I meant- I wasn't- It-" She finally ran from the table, crying.

Danny was left alone on the table. A tear rolled his cheek as he realized just what that meant.

> > > > > >

Not bad for an emotional bit, wouldn't you say?


	9. Guilty Conscience

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

> > > > > >

Technical Difficulties

> > > > > >

Chapter 9: Guilty Conscience

> > > > > >

It had been four hours since Valerie isolated herself from Danny, better known as lunchtime. She sat by herself, swirling the mac and cheese in her lunch tray with spork. She was still upset over what she had done earlier. She looked up to look at Danny with his friends on the other side of the cafeteria. He almost looked as down as she was.

_Do you have to keep looking at him?_

"This is none of your business," Valerie said quietly, not to get any strange eyes.

_I'm only looking out for your own good._

"I didn't ask for your help," Valerie mentioned, "you just showed up. Do you even have any concern for what I feel?"

_Oh yeah, plenty. Keep doing what you do best. Remember, eyes on the prize._

Valerie looked back down at her tray and said, "I have a feeling we have different prizes in mind."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the cafeteria, Danny was in the same glum mood as Valerie. Sam and Tucker tried to cheer him up, but to no avail.

"She just wanted me to go away..." Danny still couldn't get those words out of his head.

"C'mon, Danny," Sam said, "lighten up. So your crush dumped you... again. It's nothing to be so gloomy over. This is life in high school."

"You know," Tucker added in, "you can't always say she wanted to do what she did. Keep in mind that Mr. Gray doesn't exactly approve of your parent's ghost madness."

"I know why she did it," Danny blurted. He looked back at Valerie from afar as he told his friends, "She's trying to protect me."

Sam then asked, "From what?"

Danny turned to his friends and said, "Myself."

There was a moment of confused silence until Tucker said, "What does that even mean?"

"Oh, I get it!" Sam exclaimed.

There was a sudden cold breeze after Sam spoke. Danny looked from where the breeze was blowing to find it came from the cool breath of Klemper, a dimwitted ice powered ghost that wheres pink striped pajamas who has no evil intentions. He only wants a friend.

"Hello, friends!" Klemper shouted, gathering the entire cafeteria's attention. All but a certain few ran away screaming, much to the displeasure of Klemper.

"Sam," Tucker said, reaching into his backpack for a Fenton Thermos, "you'll have to tell me what Danny's talking about. Danny," he handed the thermos to Danny, "you do your job."

Danny took the thermos as Sam and Tucker fled. Danny took cover under the table and transformed in a flash.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the cafeteria, Valerie took sight of the ghost and decided to take action. She ducked under her table, donning her armor after a purple flash emitted from beneath. She flew back out on her board, saying, "Finally, something to take my frustrations out on!" She jetted towards the pajamaed ghost, arms ready to fire.

"Will you be my friend!" Klemper asked, unable to comprehend what Valerie could do to him. Before he could even get an answer (or a blast in the face, for that matter), he was tackled by another ghost. Phantom _had_ to show up, didn't he? Valerie looked on as the ghosts flew out through the building.

Not wanting to damage the cafeteria, Valerie flew down the hallway as fast as she could, reaching her boiling point. "Does he always have to show up wherever I DO!" she exploded.

Outside, Danny was in a struggle with Klemper, which ended by throwing him at a nearby tree. Danny took the opportunity to activate the thermos and trap Klemper, whose final word were, "Why won't you be my friend!" Danny closed the thermos after Klemper was inside.

"Well," Danny said, "at least I blew off some steam from earlier today. Now to get back to-" Danny's sentence was interupted by a blast from behind. After hitting the ground, he shook his head to recover and looked behind him from wear the shot came from. As he suspected, it was Valerie, hands smoking, looking more driven than he could remember her. He asked her, "Do we really have to be enemies?"

"Why?" Valerie asked, flying at full speed toward Danny. "Do you give up!"

Before Danny could get tackled, he flew up so that no one at the school would get hurt in any line of fire. His plan worked, as Valerie quickly followed.

Valerie kept intense focus on Phantom as they darted into the sky. Seeing the ghost's lack in change of direction, she activated a surge of electrical energy from her hoverboard. The bolt hit Phantom dead-on, leaving him floating in place, stunned. Valerie took the time to grab Phantom by the collar of his jumpsuit while still ascending, yanking him further up. The ghost in hand, she pulled her free fist back and charged it with energy, saying, "You're not getting away from me this time, punk!" before punching him in the face. The blow sent the ghost back several feet before getting hit by a barrage of energy blasts. "It's ghosts like you that made me abandon what's left of my social life!" She said, after delivering another charged punch.

Despite a loss of focus, Danny knew about what he heard. He was right about Valerie seperating herself from him, and most likely others, for protection. It was one of those ironic moments he took time to notice before being grabbed by the shoulders in a very uncomfortable way.

Phantom in hand once more, Valerie descended straight down to the ground as fast as her board could do so. Coming close to the ground, Valerie turned to an angle and released Phantom, swooping back up so not to be hurt herself. The result was Phantom being piledriven at the ground, going so far as twenty feet before smacking against a tree, tilting it slightly. Valerie saw where the ghost had stopped and flew down, abandoning her board along the way.

Danny found himself teetering on the verge of unconsciousness in a hole in the ground, leaning back against a tree. He looked up to see Valerie with a small, glowing cannon on the back of her wrist before his world fell into darkness.

"Say 'good-bye', ghost," Valerie said, staring daggeres into her rival, her ray fully charged and aimed at Phantom's head. However, her focus was lost by a bright flash that came from the ghost, causing her to turn her head away. She turned back to see two rings of light around the ghost boy's neck and knees, but what shocked her the most was what she found in between them: a white t-shirt with a red spot in the center and blue jeans. It wasn't until the rings gone their specific way and disappeared that Valerie realized who they belonged to. "Danny!" She was shocked to see the raven-haired she cared about where her white-headed enemy should be.

_It's a trick! It has to be! Don't lose focus!_

Valerie quickly turned serious and pointed her ray at Danny again. Her seriousness quickly turned to upsetness upon who she was aiming at. Her arm started to quiver as tears began to form in her eyes. "All this time..."

_Stop squabbling and blow his head off!_

Valerie took her aim off off Danny to grab hold of the sides of her head. "Stop telling me what to do!" she cried, letting her emotions out. Rather than stay where her crush was... well, practically crushed, she summoned her board and flew wherevershe could to recooperate.

Several moments later, Danny regained consciousness, shaking his head to make it feel a little less light. He looked down and found himself back in his human attire. He got himself back up in the small cleft Valerie left him in, knowing she had to've saw him change back. He then saw two familer figures running his way.

"Danny," Sam said, hugging him in relief, "you're okay!" Danny gently shouldered her off and started walking up the cleft.

"We followed you from the sky when you were fight Valerie," Tucker told, speaking at a mile a minute. "I'm surprised Valerie left you alone after that dive! Anyway, i have the thermos, Klemper's still inside, and everything's..." Danny just walked right by him, probally ignored everything just spoken to him. "Danny?"

Danny would remain silent until after he got back to school.

> > > > > >

Still on the verge of an emotional breakdown, Valerie flew herself to the rooftops of Axion Labs, the place where her hatred of ghosts began. She disabled her board as she went to cry against the structure's antenna. "All this time," Valerie wheeped, "Danny was..."

_You had him in your sights! You could've easily finished him!_

Valerie took to ignoring the voice and continued, "If only I'd have known..."

_Oh, oh, oh, let me finish this: "If only I'd have known, I would have never hunted down the one person who drove a stake through the heart my high school social status."_

"Will you just SHUT UP!" Valerie screamed. "You don't know him like I do!"

_He's a threat to the town!_

"He must have his own side," Valerie hesitantly said, defending her love. "He must be a good guy. He has to be!"

_Stop making excuses and DESTROY HIM BEFORE YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!_

"I DON'T HAVE TO LIS-" Valerie stopped upon recognizing what the voice just said. "Wait, ruin everything?"

_Um, did I say that out loud? Ugh, why does this always happen!_

"What are you talking about? Explain yourself, 'conscience'."

_Looks like I got some explaining to do. Could you turn around?_

Valerie, although lacking in trust, did as she was instructed. She was welcomed by a green-skinned appariton sporting a black lab coat, a white cape, sunglasses, and a white mullet.

"SURPRISE!" it shouted. Slightly shocked, Valerie fired several shots at it. While they were all dead-on, the shots went right through the ghost, who showed no signs of using intangability (which also wouldn't have helped it). It gave out a loud cackle as he said, "Stop it, that tickles!"

In a rare case, Valerie showed signs of fear. "Just who or what are you?" she demanded.

"I love doing this," the ghost said before introducing himself. "I am Technus: mater of all technology, future conqueror of this world, and the one who gave you your fancy new outfit! I believe a 'thank you' is in order." Valerie continued firing at the ghost, who effortlessly walked in her direction. "Blast all you want, child! All you're shooting at is an image in your head," Technus placed his gloved finger on Valerie's forehead, "courtecy of me."

Valerie finally recognized his voice. It was the same as the one in her head, only more loud and obnoxious. "You're that voice in my head, aren't you?" she questioned just to be sure, her voice showing a hint of fear.

"Of course I was that voice in your head!" Technus shouted, unable to stand her questioning of the obvious. "_And_ I made you see all that stuf in the school, _and_ gave you those dreams!"

"You _what!_" Valerie asked, having been given more information than she asked for.

Technus slapped his forehead, knowing his occasional habit of blurting out his plans reared its ugly head yet again. "Might as well explain," he started. "After that meddling ghost child ruined my plans of taking over that fancy satalite in space, I had to hide myself until my next plot worked its way up. And that plot came the moment I saw you flying by! My first thought was to just hitch a ride, but then I thought about hiding myself in your suit!"

"What do you mean?"

"That suit's part of you, child! On or off, I've always been hidden in your body. That ghost kid would never detect me if I remained hidden in you."

"You sound like a coward to me!" Valerie said, trying to get her confidence back.

"There's no cowardice in genius!" Technus defended. "As I was saying, it came to me to use you to destroy that troublesome boy, but not just by waiting for you to do so. You needed a little... persuasion. Posing as the conscience of an obsessed girl wasn't a problem. Then it came to me a third time! After that you finaly finished off that ghost boy, I'd fully overshadow you and take world domination from there! Your physical ability combined with my genius and power over machinery would be unstoppable! But MAN, you are a weak-minded girl! I had no IDEA how easy it was to bend your mind like that, what with the dream making and halucinations. I could have taken you over from the start! But seeing how I needed your boyfriend out of the way first..."

"You're not taking over me!" Valerie assured.

"Please!" Technus said, taking the huntress's threat as nothing. "You're mind's full of rage and vengeance. It's an easy one to overshadow! Oh, and uh, you may want to warn your boyfriend right now."

Valerie took no hesitation to follow the ghost's orders and flew as fast as she could to the school. She thought she had left that ghost behind, but it wasn't until she looked to see Technus was flying right next to her that she remembered it was only an image of him.

"Have you forgotten already, child!" he shouted, making Valerie only go faster. She was stopped quickly when a wall of Technuses popped in front of her, all saying in unison, "You can't escape me!" Remembering it was only an image, she plowed through the ghosts, harmlessly getting past. Upon approaching town, one of the larger buildings took Technus's shape, almost scaring Valerie off her board. "Do I sense fear, too? Another feeling that makes you easy to get into! And seeing how you know too much..."

Valerie felt a sharp pain in her head, as if someone jabbed two icepicks into her temples. She screamed and fought for control, but her efforts were in vain. She found herself trapped in darkness.

Valerie Gray had lost control of her body to Technus. Her suit, now black and green as opposed to black and red, was a sure sign of it. "Now," Technus said, his voice dualed with Valerie's, "what shall I do to lure that ghost boy to me? Of course! He cares too much for his friends, and more for his girl! Kidnapping them will be the perfect bait, and in this body, he'll not dare attack me. It's too easy! But first, to terrorize her father. It's only the first step for my plan in which I, Technus, will rule this world!"

The possessed body cackled as it flew to the Gray family's appartment.

> > > > > >

If you don't know what that whole Dual-speaking means, remember Riku and Ansem in the first Kingdom Hearts? There you go.


	10. Meet the Parent

Anyone catch "Dead Man's Chest"? I did, and I'm a bit surprised that SotS doesn't do anything to affect the would-be next part. If anything, SotS helped Norrington's character in DMC. Also, excuse the lame title.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

> > > > > >

Technical Difficulties

> > > > > >

Chapter 10: Meet the Parent

> > > > > >

Damon Gray sat on the couch, enjoying his day off with good old '70s television. Most people continue to laugh at those episodes they must have seen twenty times at least, and Damon was one of them. "Tripper, you'll never learn, will you?" he laughed.

There was suddenly a crash, like a window breaking, though the sound that came with it suggested it almost took the surrounding wall with it. Damon got up off the couch, turned around, and shouted, "Alright, who threw-!" Damon stopped to find his daughter in front where the window should be. Something was different about Valerie, but Damon didn't take time to notice it. "Valerie, what did I tell you about ghost hunting! And what are you doing outside of school! And do you know how much it's gonna cost me to replace that window!"

Technus, not really listening, fired a shot at Damon, who who flew back into the television, breaking the screen with his back end.

"In no particular order," Technus began to list, "about $150, you'd ground the girl even harder, and begining world domination."

Damon was skeptic with the new color of Valerie's suit, but he realized that his daughter wasn't under her own will after hearing her voice. "What did you do to Valerie?" he asked, carefully removing himself from his TV.

"Isn't it obvious!" Technus answered. "Your little girl is the key to my plans of world domination!"

"Get out of her!" Damon demanded. All Technus did was laugh.

"Is that all you can do!" Technus taunted, making Damon fume. "Anyway, I just wanted to see the appartment one more time before I have it trashed, and before you asked me how.." Technus put focus on the whole building for anything electronic. Various items from the Gray's appartment and other's that came through what's left of the window began to circle around just beneath Damon's roof. The result, after a bright flash, was a Frankenstien of electronic objects.

The creation's body was made from a washing machine and sported two very different arms. One was made from two office lamps and a toaster, and the other was from a pair of personal computers and three electric drills. It's legs both had the same appearance, as they each consisted of a keyboard, amplifier, and scanner going down. It's computer monitor head, which was supported by a neck made from CD players, sported a green face with red eyes and a rectangular grin. It gave quite a shock as it hit the floor, almost shaking Damon off his feet.

"Trash the place," Technus commanded the creation, "and if anyone, and I mean _anyone_ gets in the way, trash them too." Technus then pointed at Damon and said, "As for you, you're only part one of my plan." He then took a step out the window as the creation started to lift the couch, giving Damon these creepy departing words.

"So long, _'Dad'!_"

> > > > > >

The school bell rang, signaling the end of class, leaving time for homework and/or goofing off for the children. Danny couldn't help but be worried, though, as Valerie never made it to sixth period.

"Danny," Sam said, "don't worry so much. Valerie's tough, she can handle her own with whatever happened to her."

"That's easy for you to say," Danny said. "You're not the ghost hunter who just found out her best friend is also your worst enemy! I feel like if something happens to her, it'll be my fault."

"Stop beating yourself up, man," Tucker added. "Nothing's gonna happen to her. Unless she's having one of the biggest emotional breakdowns in history after being caught in the worst possible dilemma. You'll have to worry about that."

"You're not helping," Sam hissed.

"Oh, so _now_ you wanna help!" Tucker came back.

"No, not with-" Sam was clearly caught off-guard. "Ugh, you're so immature!"

"I'm getting to the bottom of this," Danny said before running to the nearest tree. "If my parents ask, Lancer gave me detention." Danny transformed behind the tree and flew off in an instant.

"Danny, wait!" Sam shouted, unable to stop Danny. He was out of sight before she could give any warning of danger.

"Was it something I said?" Tucker asked.

Sam gave Tucker a dirty look before dragging him by his ear and saying, "Come on, let's tell Jazz."

> > > > > >

Danny figured the first place he'd start looking was at the Gray's appartment. Since it was after school, Valerie may very well likely be there. His original plan was to turn invisable and search the appartment just to make sure Valerie was alright, but his ghost sense going off made that plan moot. He searched around the building until he saw a broken window. He looked through it to find an odd Frankenstien of a monster thrashing at anything that exsisted in the appartment.

Danny found what made his sensor go off and fired a ghost ray at it's back after flying in. The monster hunched over, having felt the blast. It turned around and spotted what had attacked it. Following orders, the monster lifted one of it's arms and fired two beams from it's toaster. The attack was very unexpected, and the ghost boy was smacked into the wall from it.

"Okay, whatever bank that was a gift from, I'm staying away from it," Danny said, finding time for witty banter. Danny quickly recovered and flew at the mechanical menace and threw two punches at it. The creature was relatively unaffected, and used its lamp-toaster arm to club Danny away and fire another shot at him, forcing him to the wall again. Danny tried getting up, but out of nowhere, the creature pushed its toaster against Danny's throat and lifted him above the floor. It pulled its other arm back and activated its claw of drills. The drills glowed green as they spun, which meant trouble for Danny if he didn't act fast. Fortunately, he did, as he fired a ghost ray at the creature's face. The beam blew out all the insides on the monitor enough to see directly through it. It suddenly dismantled afterwards. Danny dropped back to the floor, holding onto his throat.

"A walking pawn shop?" Danny wondered aloud. "This can only be the work of Techn-AAAAHHH!" Danny was interupted by a blast from behind and fell to the ground. He looked up to see his shooter was Valerie's dad, Damon, armed with an emergency ecto gun.

"Alright, ghost kid," Damon threatened, pointing his gun at Danny, "what did you do to my daughter?"

"I didn't do anything!" Danny answered.

"You're lying!" Damon said, his finger itching to shoot.

"If I did anything," Danny said, getting up, "do you think I would come back here? Do you think I would take that Frankenstien out?"

Damon gave careful consideration before lowering his gun. "I beleive you," he said, still a little uneasy. "What do you want with her? She's always after you."

"Something I can't explain," Danny said. "I don't know what happened to your daughter, but I know a ghost named Technus is behind it."

"So _that's_ what it was," Damon said to himself, recalling just what was wrong with Valerie.

"You saw him!" Danny said, too worried for detail. "Where did he go!"

"Well," Damon said, unable to explain, "I guess he just flew out the window, but I didn't see where. And he was-"

"No time!" Danny interupted, flying out the window. "They could be anywhere by now!"

"Wait," Damon shouted at Danny as he flew away, "you didn't hear everything!" The ghost was gone before he knew it. Damon walked away and sat against the wall, unable to shake off the feeling that the worst was going to happen.

"Please don't hurt her," Damon hoped. It was all he could do.

> > > > > >

I really felt I could've made the confrontation between Danny and Damon better than it was. I just had to ask myself, "How could Damon say he saw Technus without saying he was in Valerie?", and this was what came up.


	11. One by One

Bluemoonalto: How can the toaster be not so scary? It fires lasers! And three drills.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

----------

Technical Difficulties

----------

Chapter 11: One by One

----------

"Jazz, sweetie," Maddie called to her daughter, who was just finishing her homework on the living room coffee table, "have you seen Danny? He's should've been home by now."

"Oh, uh," Jazz answered, slightly hesitant, "his friends told me he had detention."

"What for!" Maddie asked, very irritated.

Jazz paniced a bit. Sam and Tucker only told her to say detention to cover his search for Valerie. She was never given a reason as to how Danny got detention, so she had to act fast. "Food fight!" Jazz thought up. "He started a huge food fight in the cafeteria. Last I heard, they were still cleaning up the cafeteria. Don't expect him back home for at least another hour."

There was a moment of awkward silence before Maddie said, "That boy is going to be in so much trouble." She then walked back in the kitchen. Jazz gave a sigh of relief as she finished her writing and closed her books. She thought she'd spend the rest of the day with TV before her daily diary entry until she heard a small crash in the basement.

"Oh, no," Jazz worried. She rushed down to the basement and hoped for the least.

Quietly opening the door and quickly sneaking down the steps, Jazz kept caution of whatever ghost might've slipped out the Fenton Ghost Portal. When she came to the bottom step, Jazz took cover behind the wall to see the ghost that attacked the lab may or may not actually be a ghost. It was a green-armored huntress that stood above the remains of Fanton Ghost Catcher, an item that looked much like a giant Native American dream catcher that seperates a ghost from whatever it was possessing. Whatever the reason, that ghostly being wanted it destroyed.

"Now with the Ghost Catcher destroyed," the huntress-ghost-whatever gloated, speaking in a male and female voice, "I, Technus, through overshadowing the suit of Valerie Gray to which I worked my way into her free will, _am unstoppable!_"

"You _what!_" Jazz said, exposing herself unintentionally. Technus looked over to the girl, much disappointed in himself.

"You heard everything, didn't you?" He had to ask.

"That's right," Jazz said, now trying to sound tough, "and I'm not letting you destroy anything else in this lab that might stop you."

Technus paused and looked around the lab a bit before shouting, "That's a great idea! I've always heard you were the smart one! And just so you don't tell anybody else..." Technus summoned a boleadora into his hand, spun it around his head, and threw it at Jazz. Jazz found herself tangled up before she could get away. Technus took the oppertunity to continue bragging. "Now that you are incapacitated, I, Technus, shall now destroy all the contents in this laboratory, use you as bait to lure and destroy the ghost child, then _rule over this world!_" Before he could even get a blast out...

"We heard loud, annoying shouting in here," Jack barged in with Maddie by his side, both armed with ecto-guns. "What's going- Suffering spooks!"

"So much for that plan," Technus said to himself before redirecting his attention back to the Fentons. "Oh well, a consulation prize wouldn't hurt!" He flew off, picking up Jazz in the process, and exited the lab via intangability.

"_Jazz!_" Maddie cried out.

"I don't believe it," Jack said, showing concern. Being who he is, that concern didn't last too long. "That suit was _awesome!_ Did you see how it just made that board appear out of nowhere? That is so cool!"

"Will you focus Jack?" Maddie said, trying to talk some sence into her husband's thick skull. "Our daughter was just kidnapped!"

"Oh, right," Jack said. "There's only one thing left to do!" Jack reached into his pocket only to pull out what made Maddie's anticipated expression turn sour. "2:28 PM: Jazz kidnapped by-"

"_Will you just forget about the notepad?_" Maddie didn't want to be stalled any longer and slapped the notepad out of Jack's hand.

"Alright, fine," Jack pouted. His moment of gloom quickly melted away when he heroicly shouted, "To the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!"

----------

"Technus has Valerie, now I have to know why," Danny told Sam on his cell phone while flying back to his place.

"Danny, aren't you the least bit concerned about what Valerie might do to you after you play hero to her?" Sam, alone in her room, had to ask.

"Don't worry about me," Danny informed. "Just keep an eye out for any attacking kitchen appliences."

"Will do, I guess," Sam reluctanty answered before hanging up. This was really one of the only moments where Sam didn't want to help Danny. She'd also be helping out the person who hunted Danny down relentlessly and was pretty mean to her, Danny, and Tucker some time ago. Now Danny starts caring for Valerie as if nothing happened. After what just happened today, the last thing Sam wanted was for Danny to be hurt, not physically, but emotionally. She cared for Danny too much. It was really that she...

"GOTCHA!"

Sam suddenly found herself entangled in a boleadora and grabbed from behind. She looked back to see her capturer and appeared less surprised than one would think.

"Valerie!" Sam exclaimed, sounding as if she knew all along. She also took note of Jazz being tied in the same type of boleadora dangling beneath Valerie's jet board. "I knew you were still in a grudge with Danny, so now you're trying to take all of us and use us as bait to lure Danny in and finish him off once and for all!"

"Wow," the overshadowed ghost huntress said, "I can't believe I didn't blurt that out."

"Wait a minute," Sam began to realize, "Technus!"

"Bingo!" Technus answered. "And I plan to use you as bait..."

"She already said that!" Jazz mentioned.

Technus paused and then said to Jazz, "You know, you're really taking out the fun in this." He then continued broadcasting his plans. "Now to kidnap the geeky one so that I, Technus, can destroy that wreched ghost child and rule this world!" He took off and out on Sam's room and went to do what he said.

------------

Danny reverted back to human form as he approached his house so he wouldn't get his parents driven. He entered his house and called out, "Mom, Dad, I'm home! Sorry for what I did to..." He felt an eerie calm in his house. Something didn't seem right. "Is anyone there?" He looked all around the house: the living room, the kitchen, his room, Jazz's room, his parents' room, and the op. center until he finally got the the lab in the basement.

What he saw down there had him somewhat worried. The floor had scattered pieces of dark metal and glowing netting. Danny knew it was the Fenton Ghost Catcher, destroyed by Technus, without a doubt. Danny used the Ghost Catcher to seperate Technus from machines a few times before, meaning Technus must have a great power in his possession. What was stranger was that it was the only piece of equiptment that seem to've been destroyed.

Along the scraps of Fenton technology, Danny also spotted his dad's notepad. Danny found this odd, since Jack never set himself apart from it. He look through it to find the last entry, which gave him even more worry. "2:28 PM: Jazz kidnapped by" was all it read. First Valerie, now Jazz? Technus has gone too far.

Danny called up Sam to give her the latest info. The tone came up three times, which wasn't normal even for a non-prep like Sam. "Come on, Sam, pick up," Danny pleaded.

"_This is Sam. If you're listening to this, then I just don't care. Just leave your massage that I'll probably delete without hearing anyway._"

Okay, so Sam isn't in the mood. Danny decided to call Tucker, who picked up right after the first ring.

"Yeah?" Tucker answered, sounding very nervous.

"Technus has something big with him," Danny informed, "and worse, he's also got Jazz."

----------

"You know," Tucker said to Danny, "it's funny you should mention those things right now." Tucker recieved his call after being cornered by Technus, whom he too thought was just Valerie, at the G.E.E.K. Café. Technus shot the phone out of Tucker's hand, destroying it, and caught Tucker with the now-signature boleadora.

"Now, with you captured," Technus began.

"We know already!' Jazz and Sam said in unison.

"Yeah, dude," Tucker said. "Even I know what you're up to."

"When I rule this world," Technus said, "you three are the first to go. Now, onward to my fiendish plan!" Technus grabbed Tucker and jetted off to where he knew Danny would spot them.

----------

"Tucker?" Danny asked. "Tucker!" He recieved a busy signal, which could only mean Technus got him, too. Danny was sick of Technus's games. Danny grabbed the Fenton Thermos he had in his backpack, went ghost, and flew through the house to go after Technus. It was personal with Valerie, but with his friends and family's lives at stake, he was ready to fall into any trap Technus had for him.

----------

And for those who don't know, a boleadora is a hunting tool that three strings tied together with a weight on each opposite end. You probably seen Wile E. Coyote use one once or twice.


	12. Fighting for Her

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

Technical Difficulties

* * *

Chapter 12: Fighting for Her

* * *

Danny searched all over for his friends. He figured that Technus would stow his friends in the last place he looked. It wasn't until he flew by the Nasty Burger he found out how wrong he was. On top of the Nasty Burger sign, there sat Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, all tied up and sitting deadly still so not to fall over the edge. But where was Valerie? Danny flew in to help his friends, not letting his guard down in case Technus was near. 

"Danny!" Jazz cried out among seeing him. Sam and Tucker turned around to find Jazz's shout was true.

"I'm glad you guys are okay," Danny said. He then quickly asked, "Where's Valerie?"

"Yeah, about that," Tucker began saying. Before he could get a word out, Danny was blasted away from an unknown source.

Danny looked up to find out where that blast came from. He couldn't believe it. It was Valerie. Her suit may have been a different color, but it was still Valerie nonetheless.

"What do you think you're doing!" Danny shouted. He never thought he'd actually find himself angry with Valerie. "I'm trying to help them!"

"I know!" "Valerie" told him, sounding different than he recalled. "I brought them here to bring you here, so I could destroy you from inside a body you can't hurt in order to rule the world! Not a bad plan, if I say so myself, 'boyfriend'!"

"Wait a minute," Danny began to realized. "Valerie? Technus! ...Boyfriend?" Danny shuddered. "There are some things I just wish I could unhear."

"That's right, ghost child!" Technus admited. "It is I, Technus! Master of-"

"What are you doing with Valerie!" Danny inturupted. The last thing he wanted to hear was Technus introduce himself, seeing how he does it more often than plot his plans out.

"Well, long story short," Technus casually explained, "the fancy satalite blew up, I became one with her suit, I manipulated her, yadda yadda yadda. Now to blast your butt!"

"Get out of Valerie now!" Danny said, activating the Fenton Thermos on Valerie. He hoped that it would only trap Technus inside and leave Valerie unharmed. He was only half right, tough, for while Valerie was left unharmed, Technus was still inside her, as evident by the green battle suit.

"Are you done?" Technus cockily asked before jetting toward Danny. He grabbed Danny by the collar and pointed his charged up wrist blaster at his gut. "This could be easier than I thought!" Suddenly, Technus started convulsing, releasing his hold on Danny. Danny Lookedat Technus and he seemed paniced.

"Danny! Help me!" Now it was odd. Danny couldn't hear Technus in that cry for help.

"Valerie?" Danny asked. He knew she was still in there! "Valerie, fight him!"

What Danny was sure was Valerie fired at him and hit him square in the chest. "Valerie's not here right now!" Technus was back in control. "Leave a message after the doom!"

Danny couldn't risk hurting Valerie and flew away. Technus took chase, firing lasers every which way to hit his halfa of a target. Danny managed to avoid the lasers long enough to fly through a building. He thought that he could avoid Technus long enough to stop and think up a good plan to seperate him from Valerie. What he didn't know was that Technus had full access to his powers inside Valerie, flying through the building behind Danny and tackling him to the ground. Technus pinned Danny down, ready to fire at his head.

"You're toast!" Technus shouted, before pulling his head and arm back shouting, "No!" His shot was wasted in the air. Danny knew Valerie was buying Danny time, so he phased beneath the ground.

When Technus came back in control, he found the ground beneath him was bare. "Stupid girl!" Technus cursed. "I had him!"

"Technus, I'll warn you one last time," Danny said, appearing ten feet in front of Technus, "get out of Valerie now!

"Make me!" Technus dared.

"Fine!" Danny said. He inhaled deeply and let out his ghostly wail. If the Fenton Thermos couldn't get Technus out, maybe Danny could scream him out.

Technus braced himself for the soundwave, taking the blast and being dragged a few inches. He didn't fall back though as he slowly took step after step towards Danny, pushing himself as close as Valerie's body could take him.

Danny was screaming his lungs out, hoping for a non-violent result. He wanted to help Valerie and punish Technus after it was over, but since his power would be drained by then, trapping Technus in the thermos was good enough. Danny was on his hands and knees now, slowly weakening to the emense power of the wail. The wail finally overpowered him, reverting back to his human form and on he brink of passing out. He looked up to see his overshadowed friend still overshadowed as noted by her green armor.

Technus unbraced himself and looked down at Danny, panting on his knees. Technus laughed maniacally as he summoned and threw a boleadora at Danny, tangling him for his demise. Technus walked over to Danny to finish him off, taunting all the way.

"What a shame," Technus began. "I spend all this time finding the right plan and you don't even lift a finger to try and foil it. And look at you now! You're not even trying to wriggle out of that! Oh well, it matters not." Technus began charging a blast at Danny's head. "Now I, Technus, shall desroy you once and for-" Technus's neck stared twitching uncontrolably as hisfaces contorted in various expressions.

"Leave... him... alone!" Valerie was fighting back. She wasn't about to let Technus win so easily.

"Not now, child!" Technus snapped back. "I almost... have it!"

"You are not... controling me!" Valerie gained back control only for a moment.

"I _AM_ YOU!" Technus butted back in.

Danny was growing very confused and somewhat scared, seeing Valerie and Technus fight amongst eachother in the same violetly convulsing body. He was even more disturbed when he saw Valerie's hands go through the sides of her head.

"NOT ANYMORE!" Valere shouted. Her arms were progresivly pulling out of her head... bringing Technus out by the hair with them!

"What are you doing!" Technus shouted while being pulled out of Valerie. Valerie gave one final burst of energy getting Technus out, sending him flying. Valerie's battle suit reverted back to her street clothes after passing out face first from the energy put into freeing herself from Technus's control.

Technus looked down at Valerie, which was further proof of his latest plan's failure. "NO!" he shouted. "This isn't POSSIBLE!"

After Valerie passed out, the boleadora binding Danny suddenly disappeared. Realizing this, Danny quickly got up and activated the thermos in Technus's direction before he could do anything else.

"WHY CAN'T THE POWER OF LOVE ONLY EXIST IN CARTOONS?" Technus cried upon being sucked into the thermos. Danny sealed the device and it was finally over. Danny then saw Valerie lying in thee street and rushed over to see if she was okay. He felt her wrist to see if she still had a pulse, which she did, but felt she needed to get to a hospital soon. He lifted Valerie's body into his arms and carried her to any place that could hlp her.

* * *

"I think we've learned a lesson from all this," Tucker acknowledged. "A person can have the most impossible obsticles in their path, but love will always find a way." 

"That great, Tucker," Sam said to him. "Do you think it'll also get us down from this sign?"

"Still workin' on that," Tucker answered. In all the drama, Danny forgot to help his friends and sister from off the Nasty Busger sign. Luckily, help was on the way. Unfortunately, it was from the Fentons. They leaped out of the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle ready for action.

"Don't worry kids, help is on the way!" Jack shouted in a loudspeaker. He pulled out a four-hooked item on a rope. The hooks appeared very sharp and incredibly dangerous. "I brought the Fenton Grappling Hook just in case of situations like this."

Always concerned for the safety of others and herself, Jazz kindy asked her dad from atop the sign, "Um, do you have anything less... pointy?"

* * *

Man, I put this thing on hold for ages. Darn you, history class and your semester-long projects! Well, at least it's almost over. 


	13. Aftermath

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

* * *

Technical Difficulties

* * *

Chapter 13: Aftermath

* * *

Damon laid on his couch, staring blankly into the ceiling. It had been an hour since he heard from Phantom about Valerie. Sixty minutes had never seemed so long. All Damon wanted was a sign, any sign, to be sure Valerie was safe. Just then, the phone rang. Feeling this was the sign he had been wanting, Damon took no hesitation to get up and answer the phone.

"Hello?" Damon said as soon as he answered.

"Is this Damon Gray?" a female voice said on he other end of the line.

"Yes," Damon answered.

"I'm calling from Amity Hospital about your daughter, Valerie," the associate said.

"What about her?!" Damon suddenly asked. "Is she sick? Is she hurt? Is she-"

"Mr. Gray, she's fine," the associate said. "She's just resting right now. She was found passed out on the streets and brought here by a boy about her age. You can pick her up right away if you're not busy."

"I'll be there as soon as possible!" Damon said with tears in his eyes. "Thank you!" He hung up the phone and cried against the wall. He was so happy that his daughter was okay, his emotions went into overload. During his bawling, Damon gave a thanking to the one who he felt deserved it the most. "Thank you, Phantom, wherever you are."

* * *

The next day, during lunch at Casper High, everything seemed to be back to normal. Danny was sitting with Sam and Tucker (whose rescue from the Fentons was one of their more frightening non-ghost experiences) eating lunch. As they were talking about all that happened yesterday afternoon, Danny's attention wa brought to Valerie, who was just passing the table. Rather than sit with them, Valerie took a seat at an empty table by the door to the hallway.

"Could you guys excuse me?" Danny said to his friends, getting up with his lunch tray without waiting for a response.

Valerie sat alone at her table, stirring her mashed potatoes with her spork. She then noticed someone sitting across from her. She looked up to see it was Danny, then quickly turned her focus back to her tray.

"...Hey," Danny said quietly.

"...Hey," Valerie said back. An awkward silence passed between the two. It was the first time the two had actually spoken since Valerie told Danny she didn't want to see him, caused by the stress Technus put her through.

Danny then decided to break the ice. "So, I take there was no memory wipe from yesterday?"

"Afraid not," Valerie answered. "I still know you and Phantom are the same. It explains a lot, like how he... you refused to fight me. By the way, how long have you known about me?"

"Practically day one," Danny answered. "So, do you know how Technus overshadowed you at all?"

"Yeah," Valerie said. "He told me everything."

"Well, he kinda has a habit of doing that," Danny joked. Valerie giggled at the joke, knowing just what Dany was talking about. Danny went back on topic, asking, "So, how'd he get to you?"

"He said that after that incident in space," Valerie told, "he found his way into my suit and started acting like a conscience. I can't say I really trusted his voice, but after a series of events, he seemed like the only one I could listen to." Valerie began to get uncomfortable telling the story. "He wanted me to give up everything I had just so I could destroy you."

"Then you found out out I was the ghost kid all along," Danny finished for her, "and Technus took over."

"Yeah, that's about it."

"But you fought back," Danny mentioned. "You beat Technus. How?"

"I... I just heard you," Valerie said. "I was almost about to give up because I was so confused at the time. But when I heard your voice, I knew what I had to do. You were fighting for me, which meant I had to fight for me. It's funny. Up until now, never knew how alike you an your ghast half sounded."

"Yeah, that spooky echo effect creeps me out, too," Danny joked. He moved to a more serious tone by asking, "So, we can still see eachother, right?"

Valerie didn't answer right away. Her head began to hurt from thinking of a logical answer. She rubbed her temples to soothe the migraine and answered. "I just don't know anymore, Danny. I'm just so confused. I hunt ghosts and it turns out you are one. I... I need more time to absorb this."

"Well... okay," Dany calmly said. "I'm gonna go back with Sam and Tuck." Danny took his lunch tray and got up, but before leaving, told Valerie, "You know, whatever you choose to think about me, I'll always protect you." Danny then left.

Valerie was apparently stunned. Danny would protect her whether she wanted him to or not. He never wanted to see her in harm's way, even during those bitter beginnings. Him wanting to protect her was so... "Danny, wait!" Valerie got up from her seat to catch up to Danny. As Danny turned around, Valerie grabbed his shoulders and kissed him square on the mouth.

Danny was shocked at Valerie's behavior, so much as to drop his lunch tray, spilling its contents on the floor. But after reallizing what this meant, he held Valerie and did as she did. After their lips parted, Danny joked "So, I guess you absorbed it enough."

"You can say that," Valerie answered. "So, you wanna catch up to things?"

"Sure," Danny said, before once again joking, "By the way, you owe me another lunch."

Valerie giggled and said, "Done!" The two walked back to the table they were just sitting at.

Meanwhile, Sam and Tucker, who saw everything that just transpired from their table, stared at the couple with their jaws hanging. Sam's eye even started to twitch out of horror. "Don't worry, Sam," Tucker said. "It's a big school. You'll meet plenty of other guys." As they continued to gawk Tucker placed his arm around Sam's shoulder.

"Make a move on me again, and you die," Sam threatened, prompting Tucker to remove his arm quickly.

* * *

After school, Danny was on his way home, still unable to believe what happened between him and Valerie. He was glad to know that throughout everything they've been through, they felt the same way about eachother. Danny's high thoughts hit a low when a glowing cage suddenly emerged from the ground beneath him. Danny was confused until he heard a familiar voice shout, "Gotcha!"

"Show yourself, Skulker!" Danny called out, shifting into ghost mode. He tried to phased through the cage, but was shocked when his body made contact with the bars. "What?" Danny tried blasting the bars, but they wouldn't break.

"Try all you want, whelp," Skulker said, jumping out of a nearby tree. "That cage is indestructable and inescapable to all creatures alike. You are trapped in there so long as I hold this keycard." Skulker then displayed the mentioned item, holding it between his index and middle fingers. "Now, how should I annihilate you?"

Before Skulker could do any action, his keycard was blasted out of his hand. What Skulker only identified as a red blur flew towards the card in midair and grabbed it. "You're not annihilating anyone!" Valerie said, touching down next to where Danny was entrapped.

"The hunter girl?!" Skulker identified. "Oh, I get it! If he can't be your prey, he can't be anyone's."

"He's not my prey," Valerie corrected, putting the keycard in a slot on the cage, causing the cage to vanish. "He's my boyfriend."

* * *

And there you have it. "Technical Difficulties" is done. I just want to say that I'm not keeping this canon with my next fic, or any other fics as far as I know. I really just can't see Valerie as a sidekick, co-hero, or all that. I'm still a DxV shipper, though. Anyway, be sure to check out my next fic. I even have the title card, I'm so excited to write it.

www(dot)deviantart(dot)com(slash)deviation(slash)34051154 ...You know what that means.

See ya next time!


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